Back when he was a state legislator, Walker was an enthusiastic proponent of recall elections. In fact, he was one of only a handful of state legislators who aligned with — and ultimately took money from — a group that was seeking to recall U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl.

Walker got even more enthusiastic about recalls in 2002, when he became the favored candidate of the group seeking to remove Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament. After Ament resigned, Walker was elected to replace him.

When he ran for governor in 2010, Walker talked up the 2002 recall drive as an exercise in democracy.

You can see Mr. Walker’s zest for recalls in the 2010 ad below. That 2002 deal was a real kick, he says. “You saw people standing up shoulder to shoulder, neighbor to neighbor, and saying, ‘We want our government back.’ ” Kind of a lot like now.